aries of
the proposed institute. I would be the last person to undervalue
this suggestion. I am well aware that the advantages we have
enjoyed in the competition of the world by the possession of
fuel, combined with large mineral resources and by the maritime
habits of our people, are now becoming of less importance, as
trained intellect has in other countries been more and more
applied to productive industry. But I know that this truth has
already penetrated our centres of manufacturing activity, for
many of the large towns have founded colleges and schools of
science and art to increase the intellectual factor of
production. London, also, has taken important steps in the same
direction. The Imperial Institute should be a supplement to, and
not a competitor with, other institutions for technical
education in science and art both at home and in the colonies.
At the same time, I trust that the institute will be able to
stimulate and aid local efforts by directing scholarships for
the working-classes into suitable channels, and by other similar
means.

"Though the institute does not engage in the direct object of
systematic technical education, it may well be the means of
promoting it, as its purpose is to extend an exact knowledge of
the industrial resources of the Empire. It will be a place of
study and resort for producers and consumers from the colonies
and India when they visit this country for business or pleasure,
and they, as well as the merchants and manufacturers of the
United Kingdom, will find in its collections, libraries,
conference and intelligence rooms, the means of extending the
commerce and of improving the manufacturing industries of the
Empire. I trust, too, that colonial and Indian subjects visiting
this country will find some sort of social welcome within the
proposed building. This institute will thus be an emblem, as
well as a practical exponent, of the community of interests and
the unity of feeling throughout the extended dominions of the
Queen.

"From the close relation in which I stand to the Queen, there
can be no impropriety in my stating that if her subjects desire,
on the occasion of the celebration of her fiftieth year as
Sovereign of this great Empire, to offer her a memorial of their
love and loyalty, she would specially value on